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aztarheel · 02-15-2007, 11:38 AM

From the Desk of Steve Victory, Cal Basketball Coach

Monday, March 1, 2032

If you’ve read your USA Today this morning, you’ve already heard the news. I was pretty stunned myself.

For the first time in my career, a player of mine has been voted an All-American!! Wow! I was stunned when AP called last night to let me know. OK course, so was SF Miran Lekivicius, who will surely go down as one of Cal’s best basketball players ever. Maybe better than Jason Kidd. That’s what you get for staying in school all four years. Miran could have jumped last year, but opted to stay for one more season and now he may lead us to a national championship as well…

Here’s the line on Leki, as we like to call him, going into Pac-10 tournament play:

Points per game: 16.5
Rebounds per game: 11.8
Blocks per game: 3.2 (wow! Great numbers for a SF)
FT percentage: 86.1 %
3-point shooting: 47.3 % (the dude is money!)
Steals per game: 1.5

The cool thing is that Leki also earned Player of the Year honors in the conference. His biggest rival, Arizona State SF Larry Deeter, also landed on the All-Conference AND All-American team. I had a hunch those two could both get on. Let’s hope they can go head-to-head one more time in the tournament.

As for the Cal Bears, we closed out the regular season on another nice win streak. We won all four road games – at Washington (88-56), at Washington State (77-64), at Arizona (67-65 – a nailbiter on Lute Olson Court) and at Arizona State (79-51). Leki had 20 in the ASU win, while Deeter only managed 9. That might have decided the POY award for the Pac-10.

It’s too bad you don’t get a banner for winning the regular season championship. We won this year’s going away. Here’s the upper half of the standings:

Cal 16-2
UCLA 13-5
Stanford 11-7
ASU 10-8
Arizona 9-9

Overall, we finished the regular season 29-3 and ranked number one in the nation! This is cool – N.C. State finished third in the nation behind us and Syracuse. A great year for the family. Of course, The Sheriff’s team didn’t actually win the ACC. Somehow Florida State won it, but pollsters think the Wolfpack is much better. The Seminoles are only ranked 16th going into the post-season.

Of course, none of this ranking stuff will matter now. It’s survive and advance time as one of my heroes, Jim Valvano, used to call it. Win and stay alive. Lose and go home. Of course, we can afford to lose in the Pac-10 tournament – we still should get a #1 seed – but I want a conference banner for the home gym! Plus, a league championship should keep us out West for the NCT…

It’s an exciting time folks! Stay tuned...

02-15-2007, 11:38 AM	#274
aztarheel High School JV Join Date: Sep 2006	From the Desk of Steve Victory, Cal Basketball Coach Monday, March 1, 2032 If you’ve read your USA Today this morning, you’ve already heard the news. I was pretty stunned myself. For the first time in my career, a player of mine has been voted an All-American!! Wow! I was stunned when AP called last night to let me know. OK course, so was SF Miran Lekivicius, who will surely go down as one of Cal’s best basketball players ever. Maybe better than Jason Kidd. That’s what you get for staying in school all four years. Miran could have jumped last year, but opted to stay for one more season and now he may lead us to a national championship as well… Here’s the line on Leki, as we like to call him, going into Pac-10 tournament play: Points per game: 16.5 Rebounds per game: 11.8 Blocks per game: 3.2 (wow! Great numbers for a SF) FT percentage: 86.1 % 3-point shooting: 47.3 % (the dude is money!) Steals per game: 1.5 The cool thing is that Leki also earned Player of the Year honors in the conference. His biggest rival, Arizona State SF Larry Deeter, also landed on the All-Conference AND All-American team. I had a hunch those two could both get on. Let’s hope they can go head-to-head one more time in the tournament. As for the Cal Bears, we closed out the regular season on another nice win streak. We won all four road games – at Washington (88-56), at Washington State (77-64), at Arizona (67-65 – a nailbiter on Lute Olson Court) and at Arizona State (79-51). Leki had 20 in the ASU win, while Deeter only managed 9. That might have decided the POY award for the Pac-10. It’s too bad you don’t get a banner for winning the regular season championship. We won this year’s going away. Here’s the upper half of the standings: Cal 16-2 UCLA 13-5 Stanford 11-7 ASU 10-8 Arizona 9-9 Overall, we finished the regular season 29-3 and ranked number one in the nation! This is cool – N.C. State finished third in the nation behind us and Syracuse. A great year for the family. Of course, The Sheriff’s team didn’t actually win the ACC. Somehow Florida State won it, but pollsters think the Wolfpack is much better. The Seminoles are only ranked 16th going into the post-season. Of course, none of this ranking stuff will matter now. It’s survive and advance time as one of my heroes, Jim Valvano, used to call it. Win and stay alive. Lose and go home. Of course, we can afford to lose in the Pac-10 tournament – we still should get a #1 seed – but I want a conference banner for the home gym! Plus, a league championship should keep us out West for the NCT… It’s an exciting time folks! Stay tuned...